RALEIGH – Cherokee Investment Partners is moving beyond its core investment strategy and aiming its wallets at three early stage startups.

The deal is similar to one the firm did last year in Raleigh in which two clean-tech companies were given Cherokee mentorship, but this time around companies will have a full accelerator experience. Three local clean techs will be allowed to share Cherokee office space in Raleigh and will each receive $20,000 to develop their ideas.

Applications are currently being accepted for the program, which Cherokee Partner Tom Darden hopes will help pull clean techs ahead of the startup pack.

“You’re competing against the government,” Darden says. “The utility companies are the government, and the government does whatever they want. If they choose to get into your business, they’re going to win, and you’re going to close.”

They have the ability to raise rates, he says, and startups have to work fast to stay ahead – and there’s a lot of competition.

As gas prices rise, a lot of companies want to capitalize on cheaper fuel initiatives, he says. That means more competition for investors.

Cherokee, launched by Darden in 1985, typically invests about $10 million a year in clean-tech companies. He says the accelerator is a way to encourage young clean techs that need a push to stay ahead of the competition.

Josh Cohen of Raleigh-based clean-tech company Transloc agrees that clean techs can face unique challenges. While his company, incorporated in 2004, is thriving with 20 employees, he acknowledges that it can be tough to get started, partially because of philosophy.

“Clean techs have to help people understand the vision of what things could be,” Cohen says, adding that a concept can’t just be environmentally friendly; it has to solve a problem easily and conveniently to appeal to the general public – and that requires education more than marketing.

Not all clean techs struggle. Organic Transit, funded by community angel investors, says it’s doing well. The company, which creates solar-electric vehicles, a cross between cars and bicycles, has taken about 300 orders and hopes to have “20 babies running around this summer,” CEO Rob Cotter says.

“People are interested in the technology,” he says, adding that if it’s a good idea and solves a problem, it’s going to be successful. “We’ve had more offers that we’ve turned away. People just have to be excited.”